Dave Marti calls it “High Maintenance Too,” following a legacy edition Peterbilt 379 that was the last new truck he’d spec’d some time back that was fairly high maintenance itself (and, of course, it’s a bit of an inside joke with his wife).
Dave Marti Trucking’s “High Maintenance Too” 2015 389 glider, built with Fitzgerald Glider KitsSome readers may remember Marti and that High Maintenance 2007 379 Legacy from the very first edition of the Custom Rigs occasional magazine Overdrive published between the years 2008 and 2012.
A page devoted to Marti’s then-relatively-new Pete from the first, 2008 edition of Custom Rigs magazine, highlighting in part his brother’s work on the fitting for the lights under the air cleaner covers.It took Dave and I a few minutes to remember it ourselves — the conversation and brief photo shoot we had all those years ago in Peoria, Ill., at the Midwest Pride in Your Ride Truck Show, was close to ten years ago. Out at the Guilty by Association Truck Show last month, when I was able to track down the owner of the pristine 2015 Peterbilt 389 glider in the video above, well, we had talked for a good five minutes before Marti said something along the lines of, “Are you guys still doing the Custom Rigs magazine? I met somebody from it and was in the first issue …”
Dave MartiThat someone, of course, was me, which we were able to establish fairly quickly thereafter. Chalk it up to aging, the persnickety nature of memory and the like, I suppose. Nonetheless, High Maintenance Too was a hit at the show, for sure. Spec’d for liquid bulk tank — Marti’s small fleet hauls fuel leased to Transport Service Inc. in the region around his Forrest, Ill., home base — the rig’s been outfitted with plenty of lights, custom grille, headlights and a unique use for old drop visors underneath cab-extender panels to contain wiring. That and the rest is detailed by Marti himself in the video up top, but a couple things that aren’t include:
These RoadWorks axle covers on the drives, which Marti had painted to match the body and offset the bright parts.
Custom steps.And …
… the fiberglass deckplate. Just under the driver-side corner of the cab extenders in this shot, too, you can just see the reflective underside of the panels — those repurposed drop visors I mentioned prior. Watch the video for better detail on those.This post, too, no doubt comes at with opportune timing to mention Marti’s hood ornament:
Yeah, the Forrest, Ill., resident is a big Cubs fan. All well and good, long as you’re not stopped over in the vicinity of St. Louis, as an officer at the Litchfield, Ill., scales told Marti recently. Eh Dave?
And: At the risk of alienating Dodgers fans, on the eve of game six in the National League Championship series — with a win the Cubs do something they haven’t done in … you know the deal — this former Chicago resident can probably definitively join Marti in saying, Go Cubs!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
